Paramount+ Boards BBC Comedy ‘Can You Keep A Secret?’

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If were going to do horror in this country, go back.

I mean we were dominating horror in the Sixties and Seventies, the Hammer horror and all that.

Zygi Kamasa wants more British horror

Zygi KamasaAlan Chapman/Dave Benett/WireImage

And then I think we lost that business to the Americans.

But if were going to do it, you cant copy, you mustnt copy the Americans.

Youve got to be original, he contends.

Dawn French, Craig Roberts, Can You Keep A Secret?

Sophie Turner, Kit HaringtonMary McCartney/Getty

Kamasa says that it has been years since British filmmakers have produced a bona fide home-grown horror hit.

Its very thin, hence why I want to bring them back.

But its so not a British horror film.

It was shot in Canada and Eggers is American through and through.

Jason Blums Blumhouse Films has, obviously, helped popularize the appeal of scare-mongering movies.

So, yeah, thats not strictly British horror fare either.

I consider how audiences have a taste for shock and MUBI has marketedThe Substanceto perfection.

Ms. Moore came on stage afterwards to help settle our stomachs.

Kamasa is clearly onto something.

He wants horror to come home to Blighty.

Kamasa co-finances and co-produces, he doesntmakethem.

However, hes instrumental in helping to usher them from script to production while controlling UK distribution rights.

Killer squirrels

Tell me something horrifying then, I say, when we meet for lunch.

The critters dig up the bulbs that my wife spends hours planting.

Our dogs go crazy when they hear them.

But are they murderers?!

They are inCraig Robertsnew movie,The Scurry, which he shot from a script by Tim Telling.

Roberts, who directedThe Phantom of the OpenandEternal Beauty, put his own spin on Tellings screenplay.

I just thought, Thats hilarious!

Learn something new every day, as the great Dame Judi Dench always tells me.

The horror comedy starsElla Purnell(Fallout, Sweetpea) andRhys Ifans(Nyad, Notting Hill).

Purnell plays an activist environmentalist and Ifans is a rodent catcher.

It sounds as if it has Green credentials?

Yes, but very much with a slight sort of wink and a nod.

These things have to be scary, Kamasa asserts.

Daniel Mays, Olivia Williams, Paapa Essiedu and Antonia Thomas are also inThe Scurry.

It was shot last year on location in Cornwall and it reunites Turner and Harington.

The Dreadfulsa 15th century Gothic tale thats super creepy and very scary, Kamasa says matter of factly.

Gay Harden plays Turners mother-in-law and shes got all sorts of tricks at her finger tips.

Kamasa wont reveal too much.

He does allow, however, thatThe Dreadfulhas ghosts and that its straight horror throughout.

And he distributed theSawfilm series too.

The new set of horror films hes connected to have a British vibe, he attests.

We have to embrace our culture of Britain in the movie he argues.

The absurdity of Britain culturally is what Im speaking about andShaun of the Deadtapped into it very well.

You know theyre British when you watch them.

When she was twelve, Ali secretly started boxing classes, telling her parents she was going running.

Then she started winning and making headlines.

Both have tremendous screenplays underpinning them.

Kamasa will announce another two titles in coming days and weeks.